Woman with Holland ties, Frances Arnold, to be inducted into Inventors Hall of Fame

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By Staff report

Holland Sentinel

By Staff report

Posted May. 20, 2014 at 5:11 PM

By Staff report

Posted May. 20, 2014 at 5:11 PM

Holland, Mich.

Frances H. Arnold will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame today. She is being honored for her work on the evolution of enzymes, molecules largely responsible for the work done in cells.

Arnoldís parents, Howard and Jodie Arnold, live at Freedom Village retirement community in Holland. Howard Arnold was a nuclear engineer with Westinghouse before his retirement. The family often spent summers at a cottage in Macatawa Park on the west end of Lake Macatawa.

Frances, a bioengineering and biochemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology, is being honored for her work in directed evolution in which you force enzymes to evolve and then those enzymes are used for biofuel, pharmaceutical or other applications.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama presented Arnold with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.